A Path to Coldness of Heart

Annotation:
GLEN COOK
A Path to Coldness of Heart
Chapter One:
Year 1016 AFE (After the Founding of the Empire of Ilkazar)
The Price of Hubris
The prisoner clamped his jaw on a shriek. He had moved too suddenly, turning. He did swear softly. He could not work his muscles, could not build the strength to escape if his wounds did not heal. And they would not if he kept trying before the meat was ready.
A clatter rose outside. This austere suite might be his entire world for the remainder of his existence: a reward for having befriended a woman and having saved the life of a man.
It was the middle of the night. Darkness with stars fil ed the single foot square window high in the east wal , wel beyond his reach. He should be sleeping.
He lay in bed, back to the doorway, feigning sleep, when the visitors arrived. Three, from the sounds of it: one large, one smal , one delicate. Female, if fragrance did not lie.
“He heals slowly,” one said....